Definition: Estate Bottled

Estate bottled wines must come strictly from grapes that are either owned by the winery or under its direct viticultural control through a longterm lease. And the wine must be completely produced, aged, and bottled at the winery. The winery itself, as well as all of the grapes used, must be from the same appellation of origin, and that appellation must be designated on the wine's label. On a French wine the analagous term mise en bouteille au chateau means "bottled at the winery." In German the word for estate bottled is gutsabfullung. And in Italian you'll see the phrase imbottigliato all'origine.

An estate bottled wine is not categorically better than one that is not estate bottled. But when you're buying a wine from a small producer, it's fascinating to taste the unique character of grapes from only that estate.